WHO?
(Jack Gold, 1974)
Release date: 27 May 2019
Limited Blu-ray Edition (UK Blu-ray premiere)
Adapted from the novel by famed science fiction writer Algis Budrys, Who? is a fascinating cold-war thriller/sci-fi hybrid. Elliott Gould (Little Murders, California Split) is an FBI agent trying to determine the true identity of a top US physicist who was horrifically injured in a car accident in East Berlin. The scientist is returned to the West encased in a metal mask and body-suit, reconstructed via cybernetic surgery. Is the man behind the metal mask who he claims to be, or is he a Soviet dupe trained to infiltrate US security?
Who?, from director Jack Gold (The Reckoning, The National Health), is one of the most unusual and affecting science fiction thrillers of the 1970s – not least because of the extraordinary performance by Joseph Bova as the masked enigma at the heart of the story.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Kim Newman on Algis Budrys (2019): the writer and critic on the acclaimed science-fiction author
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by writer and critic Phelim O’Neill, an archival interview with director Jack Gold, a look at Algis Budrys’ source novel, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies
• More extras to be announced...!
#PHILTD152
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION FREE
EAN: 5037899084007
This was pretty awful, which is frustrating given the talent involved. I'm not familiar with the source material, so unsure if its faithfulness just makes for a dull narrative, but the first half is simply people talking about whether or not someone is who they say they are. That's it - no intriguing context or anything. Then there's a little bit of brief spy action, which isn't exciting but at least it's something outside the walls of 'sci-fi theatre', though even that is undercut by Gould's point that it was faked. Any holds for character investment proposed are limp and shelved to the last act. Gould is phoning it in, in a way I've never seen from him before - either that, or he has no idea how to act in a movie like this, for which I can't blame him. The film should be retitled What?
Frustratingly, I watched this in 2022 and remember enjoying it. I apparently didn't post any thoughts here nor any thoughts on my abandoned letterboxed!
Not finding a singular When? or Where?, but you can grace your rep house marquee with:
Who?What?Why?
from IMDB:
Why? [Detenuto in attesa di giudizio (original title)]
Giuseppe Di Noi, an Italian land surveyor who has lived in Sweden for the past seven years, goes to his native country with his Swedish wife and children for his holidays. At the border he is however jailed for no apparent reason. He thus begins a nightmarish kafkian experience while he's moved from one prison to another, subject to any humiliation and violence.
But it has a 7.5 on IMDB, so it might not be a good match, probably a good title for Radiance to consider.
